Pearl Harbor was an event where the US had nearly all of the Pacific fleet, a digital Pearl Harbor would have to be similar in destroying the US network or infrastructure controls in a massive attack. One way to keep an attack from being as devastating is to decentralize the internet and infrastructure controls so that there are redundancies that can take over if the primary parts are wiped out.
There have been reports that the Russians preceeded the attack on Georgia with cyber attacks on key vulnerable points. This can be done here in the US as well if the US structure is the same as Georgia's.
The cyber criminals are more interested in money and not risk losing their tools for hacking by attempting a digital Pearl Harbor. The ones who would attempt to do such an attack would be a group that is either fanatical enough to try or one that has no concern about the outcome.
Discussion on:
Message 7 of 1
The best of ZDNet, delivered
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox
